Weekly Reads: December 5 to 11, 2022

This week was heavy on holiday historical novellas. I’ve been alternating full-length novels with novellas and bumping up my book count for the year.

Harry Potter Fanfic: Re-born by robituputup

Snape/Hermione Time-Travel Fix-It Romance. Novel length, multi-chapter. With the war lost and Harry dead, Hermione develops a ritual to go back in time with Snape. As Snape is re-born, Hermione takes a de-aging potion and lives in a nearby orphanage. Slowly regaining their memories, Hermione and Severus become childhood friends (and eventually more) and change the future. For some reason, I couldn’t put this one down. It has a lot of similar elements to other time-travel fix-it fics but it’s like my comfort food. I like reading about Hermione and Severus being equals in their intelligence and thirst for knowledge and being partners in fighting the villain of the story. Enjoyable read!

Read this fic on Archive of Our Own

The Governess Gamble by Tracy Sumner (2022)

Historical romance, Regency-era England. Novella, part of The Duchess Society series. While an American heiress is waiting for an appointment, she overhears a very handsome viscount ask for assistance in finding a governess for his new six-year old ward. Looking for the chance to sketch the man before she’s stuck in a cold and lonely marriage, she volunteers for the temporary position. This was a very sweet and quick read, with our American lady being ultra transparent and blunt about her attraction to the viscount. Plus, our impoverished lord trying to resist the lady and slowly melting for his young ward. And of course, they end up having honest conversations about the viscount’s sad financial state, his goals, his hidden profession, plus her ruination that led to her father pushing her to marry. Overall, a worthwhile read.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

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Tallie’s Knight by Anne Gracie (2000)

Historical romance, Regency-era England. Standalone. At this point, I’ve finished reading all of Anne Gracie’s completed series and a couple of her standalone novels. I noticed one more standalone novel on Fantastic Fiction that I haven’t read yet, so I figured I’d see if it was available at the library. With the Library Extension app, I was able to get the ebook from one of my library cards and borrowed it. In this one, we have a super grumpy earl, nicknamed The Icicle, who starts to thaw when he encounter’s his vicar friend’s young child in the prologue of the story. He decides that he wants to have children and tasks his irritating and spoiled female cousin with finding him a wife. While at the house party to help him choose a wife, he discovers all the women attending are just as annoying and spoiled as his cousin. However, when a poor relation steps up to defend a child from scolding, he decides he wants to marry that woman instead. From there, it’s a bit of a chaotic spiral of him being domineering, her being a mix of defiant and grateful, the spiteful cousin making things worse, and a whole lot of miscommunication because neither are open and honest with each other. However! Our earl slowly comes to care for his wife and display kindness and tenderness toward her. Something new and unexpected happened pretty much every chapter to keep me intrigued. I enjoyed this one a lot and couldn’t put it down.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

Buying Her Viscount by Ann Marquette (2022)

Historical romance, Regency-era England. Book 1 of the Naughtily Ever Afters series. Novella-length. A quick steamy read where a spinster orphan suddenly inherits a lot of money and proposes a marriage of convenience to a handsome and impoverished viscount. For as quick of a read this book was, the steam and emotional investment of the characters was totally believable for me. I adored how they each fell in love with each other and shying away from it because it wasn’t part of the original bargain. Definitely recommend.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

Harry Potter Fanfic: honey don’t feed me, i will come back by Nylexa

Harry/Draco, Hermione/Snape. Post-war, long one-shot. Everyone’s life is a mess and they slowly end up at Grimmauld Place to recover.

Read this fic on Archive of Our Own

Her Christmas Rogue by Christi Caldwell (2019)

Historical romance, Regency-era England. Novella. Winnie is in love with her older brother’s best friend but he has only seen her as a younger sister. Having had two unsuccessful Seasons, she fears her mother and friends intend to matchmake at an upcoming Christmas house party. Trent, second son to a marquess and all-around rogue, knows that he’s not worthy of Winnie and avoids her due to his shameful desire for her. Sweet and quick read. I loved how Winnie was direct in telling Trent how she feels.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

Bridgerton Fanfic: Long Story Short (it was a bad time) by fade_like_starlight

Anthony/Penelope romance, Season 2 retelling. Multi-chapter, novella-length. The Queen names Penelope as the diamond, and Anthony immediately comes courting. Basically fluffy sweetness.

Read this fic on Archive of Our Own

A Woman Entangled by Cecilia Grant (2013)

Historical romance, Regency era England. Book 3 of the Blackshear Family series. Kate is a barrister’s eldest daughter who is trying to climb out of the social chasm her family is in (her father, son of an earl, married an actress and was disowned by his family) by aiming for marrying a titled gentleman. She comes off kind of annoying here, knowing that she’s beautiful, and embarrassed by her family. Nick is also a barrister and her father’s friend; he had tried to court Kate years ago, but was rejected before he even had a chance. He has his own issues trying to rise above his family scandal (his brother married another man’s mistress in the previous book and the family disowned him). Both Kate and Nick are self-righteous and pretentious in their own ways and need to learn to accept the circumstances that they’re in an embrace the families they each have. This book had characters that had to both grow individually before being able to come together, so the romance of it felt secondary to their separate internal struggles. This book’s premise wasn’t my favorite, but I did like to see these two grow and learn.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant (2014)

Historical romance, Regency era England. Prequel novella of the Blackshear Family series, takes place years before the first book of the series. This one finds our oldest brother of the Blackshear family, Andrew, out shopping for a hunting falcon as a gift for his sister. When he visits the nobleman that sells the birds, he meets the man’s beautiful daughter, Lucy. They’re complete opposites in terms of personality and adherence to propriety. Through chance and mischief (rain, snow, broken carriages, and Christmas), these two get stuck together for longer than he anticipated, eventually necessitating a fake marriage to keep up appearances in the town where they seek shelter. Over time, Lucy enables Andrew to let go of some of his seriousness and have fun

Ebook purchased from Amazon.

Rakes and Radishes by Susanna Ives (2010)

Historical romance, Regency era England. Standalone novel. Henrietta is a fanciful, foolish, and selfish girl. She basically hates the small village that she grew up in and longs for a life in London and a love like she reads in her gothic novels. When she finds out that her not-quite-betrothed is nearly betrothed to the diamond of the Season in London, she recruits her farmer neighbor best friend (the Earl of Kesseley, who is in love with her and was previously rejected) to wash up, dress better, and seduce the girl away from her beloved. Can she get any more cruel? Somehow, they all find their way to London, and there’s a back and forth of Kesseley and Henrietta fighting their feelings and fighting with each other, to the point where Kesseley is fed up and snaps. He goes to fix his clothes and hair as recommended and sets out to rake his way through London. By this point, Henrietta has realized her feelings for Kesseley, but it’s too little, too late, as he’s been heartbroken and now risen up as a terrible person. There’s drama with his mother and her past love going on in the background, plus whatever happened with Henrietta’s first love. I enjoyed the book overall, but I’ve had enough of spoiled overreaching female main characters for awhile.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

A Christmas Kiss by Jess Michaels (2015)

Historical romance, Regency era England. Short smutty novella. This quick little five chapter story finds an estranged married couple reuniting for the holidays. We find out that they had married and the next day, the lady finds out that her husband married her for the money, and she left him. Having not seen each other for six months, the husband now wants to make it a real marriage and woo her.

Ebook purchased from Amazon.

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Want more Harry Potter fanfic? Here’s a spreadsheet of my all-time favorites.

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